Chương 279: Chapter 268

After the third wave was finished, they finally had some time to look around and try to figure out the deal behind the fracture. Well, the girls were trying to guess why the harpies were attacking, but Sam knew very well. Still, he couldn't just chime in with the solution.

"Well, my mana sense hasn't found anything, so more than likely that whatever is hidden – if it is hidden – is concealed via physical means and not magical," he explained to the younger women, whose eyes immediately lit up at that.

"There must be a hidden basement!" they called out together. Sam nodded.

"Could be… Let's go and check before the next wave arrives." They all got up from resting and rushed onto the tower's ground floor and began to comb over every inch of the room. Sam did it halfheartedly, already knowing what they were looking for, so it wasn't a surprise that one of the girls, Anna, was the one who called out excitedly.

"I found something!" They all went over and gathered around the excited woman as she was in the middle of prying out a loose stone from the wall. Cynthia stepped forward and used her spear to hasten the process, revealing a basic switch. Not even checking for traps, she immediately reached for it and pulled it. There was a surprisingly quiet grinding noise, and the floor under the stairs retreated, revealing another set of stairs leading downward.

The group looked at each other and descended into the revealed area, with Sam in the lead. To the girls' disappointment, it was revealed to be only a simple storage room, protected by that lone switch of all things. Most of the items that were stored there – for who knows how many years – were simply dust and debris, with only a few recognizable shapes here and there. However, there was one thing that stood out from all the destroyed items. A weird shelf system with circular indentations on them.

The shelf itself had three rows, with each row having a dozen said indentations. They were all empty, bar one.

"That's an egg…"

"A harpy queen egg," Cynthia whispered as she read the tooltip that appeared before all of them. [Harpy Queen Egg: An egg laid by one of the harpy queens. Looks like it is in stasis.]"Well, now we know why they were attacking with such a zeal," Sam stated. Cynthia looked back at him with a flat look.

"Wow, boss, you sure are surprised…" Dani and Anna looked up from the egg they were examining upon hearing that, and looked at Sam with suspicious eyes. Sam just shrugged.

"I mean, what else would they be after? Chocolate?" Cynthia opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out before she closed it. Sam waved toward the hole in the ceiling.

"Let's go guys, the next wave is soon."

"What about the egg?"

"Leave it for now. We can deal with it later…" As soon as they emerged from the hidden storage area, they heard the angry screeches of the incoming harpies.

"Positions, everybody!" Sam yelled out and with a few acrobatic moves, he was standing on the top balcony, ready to receive the incoming monsters. Looking down, the girls were also ready. Smiling slightly, he raised his hand and began gathering his magic.

"Hey, boss! That was the sixth wave! Should we do anything about the egg?" Cynthia asked a little worried as they finished with the wave – containing harpies that used either armor and wicked sharp weapons or harpies that used wind magic to decimate the forest around them – and were preparing themselves for the last one.

"We have six more tries. Let's use the first six to get you guys some experience points and then we can deal with the item in question," he told her. Cynthia eyed him for a few moments, looking exactly like her elder sister, before letting out a sigh.

"If you say so…"

"I do say so, and oh look! Distraction!" he exclaimed as a small group of harpies – one of them visibly larger than the others – headed toward the tower at incredible speeds. The boss of the fracture, a rather big harpy, wielding a wicked-looking sword and wind magic, fell on them, like a hurricane. Well, that was probably the harpies' intention, however, Sam's mastery over wind magic was much more powerful.

Watching the giant harpy fall to the ground with a shocked look on their face as the literal wind was taken out of their sail – or rather wings – was hilarious. Then the girls fell on her and soon it was time to gather the spoils of the 'fight'. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. They ran the entire fracture six times, gathering the rather mediocre – for Sam – loot as they progressed through the waves and waves of harpies.

It was mostly materials from harpies, some other air-related ingredients, raw materials, and a bunch of wind-related spell and skill books. Sadly, those were useless for Sam, but the girls chose a few to learn, increasing their repertoire. The rest would be sold to his guild. While they were useless for him, they would be useful for the countless number of people that was employed by the AFK company.

Aside from the bevy of materials, items, and a few lame pieces of equipment, the girls also managed to level a few times, making them rather happy. As they prepared for the last run, Sam looked at them one by one before speaking.

"Allright, this is the last one. I want you guys to do exactly as I tell you to do. If I say run, you run like the hounds of Hades are on your heels. If I say bark, you bark. Got it?" The three of them exchanged a few glances before nodding while Cynthia winked at him.

"Sure thing!" Thus, they began the last run of the fracture. The first three went the same way, then a little rest, making sure the egg was undisturbed, then another three waves, letting his teammates gather a little more experience points before it was time for the final act.

Before the last boss could appear, Sam rushed down to the hidden basement, took out some basic silk gloves (always in his inventory as they were useful for all sorts of things) and picked up the Harpy Queen Egg and with equal speed rushed back to the balcony. It didn't take long for the girls to notice his actions.

"You guys, go back to the doorway. No fighting starting now!" he called down to them.

"Are you going to give it back?" Anna asked as she and her friends began to walk back to the tower.

"Something like that…" he answered, eyes glued to the skyline, waiting for the boss to appear. The secret was pretty simple. The harpies were after the egg, so give it back to them for a reward. However, if you tried to give it back in any of the early waves, the monsters would be so angry that before they could realize what they were given, they would destroy it. Thus, one had to wait for the last possible moment to do it. Then, of course, do something about communication with the harpies.

Thankfully, he had the Allspeak…

'There they are…' he noted inwardly as the boss harpy once again appeared on the horizon, going toward the tower in a straight line. Sam waited until the harpy got close enough and he launched himself up in the air, boosting himself with his own wind magic. It took a moment to reach the same height as the harpy and their escorts, and as he made eye contact with the surprised monster, he exclaimed.

"Here is your egg!" Then he threw the egg forward. For a long moment, it was as if time was frozen. Sam hovering in the air, the harpies heading toward him at full speed, eyes filled with malice and a gasp escaping from his watching teammates at his action. He felt a pulse of mana from the boss harpy as it sped up, reaching desperately for the egg while throwing their sword away. Knowing he only had a few seconds, he also sped up and threw himself after the sword.

With a little application of mana, he managed to catch it, then without looking at the item description, he did a u-turn in the air and beelined toward the tower. As his actions would cause some rather dangerous things to happen… He was barely a few yards away from the boss when the harpy finally caught the egg and there was a sound. CRACK Thankfully, it wasn't the egg. Unfortunately, it was the fracture.

At the edges of the visible area of the fracture, rainbow-colored cracks began to appear, spreading through the air, like cracks through thin ice when somebody steps on them. All of it heading toward the portal. Sam used all his power to race toward the portal where the girls were waiting, hoping that he would be faster than the fracture actually fracturing due to doing something that broke the continuity of the loop.

He basically crashed into the team, and before they could even question what the hell he had done, he grabbed them by hand and with magic and basically pulled them through the rapidly slowing down portal just as the first rainbow-colored dimensional crack reached the outer walls of the tower. FOOOSH They tumbled out of the portal just as it collapsed into a small ball, which then exploded into a fairly strong explosion, sending them tumbling even further into the ruins.

"Owowowowow…."

"Ugh…"

"My poor tushy…" The girls complained as they tried to get into a more comfortable position than the one they landed in. Poor Dani managed to land with her legs over her head and her clothing somehow twisted in such a way that she had to rip it to be able to sit up. Sam just looked at the sword in his hand and began to laugh.

"Yes!" It took a few minutes, but they managed to get themselves into a presentable state and finally they all gathered around Sam, wondering what was so special about the sword. Truthfully, the sword wasn't exactly a legendary equipment, but its properties were exactly what Sam needed before he could go after some of the more heavily protected equipment.

"Show us! Show us!" Cynthia chanted excitedly while Dani and Anna stood next to her, grinning.

"We want to see what you got for destroying a fucking fracture. I didn't even know that was possible…" Dani and Anna nodded in agreement. Sam just smiled mysteriously.

"Everything is possible in this game if you want it hard enough… Or you're good enough!" he finished with a cheeky grin. Cynthia just snorted.

"Yeah, yeah… you're definitely a cool guy! Now show us!" Sam just raised the weapon in question and shared the item description. The sword itself was a longsword, the guard shaped like wings, and the pommel ended with three claws holding a simple gray metal ball. Nothing that would suggest it was special, however, to his magical senses, it sang with purpose and power.

[Sword of Severance: (Longsword) A sword crafted by an unknown non-human craftsman for the exact purpose of cutting things down as fast and cleanly as possible. Enchanted to stay supernaturally sharp and to never lose its edge. Further enchanted to increase the power and effectiveness of any skill used to cut that is channeled through it. The material itself guarantees that it can function as a high-quality focus.] The girls all had frowns on their faces.

"That's it?"

"That's kinda lame…"

"My staff does poison damage and increases the strength of nature magic…"

"My gloves can do lightning…" Sam just shook his head and raised the sword, focusing a little, he directed his mana into the sword, which began to glow with darkness and simply swung the sword toward the nearest patch of trees while inwardly marveling how smooth the action was. Sadly, much better than his trusty Moonlight. The girls just gaped as a crescent of void left the sword silently, then flew through the air before vanishing into the forest without making a sound.

But before any of them could voice their thoughts, the trees began to topple at their base filling the area with the crashing sound. The places where the trunks were cut were unnaturally smooth.

"Still think it's lame?"